1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of network bandwidth utilization, and specifically in one aspect to managing and conserving available bandwidth on the network in order to provide optimal support for video services over a content-based network such as a cable television network.
2. Description of Related Technology
One significant competitive challenge presently faced by network operators relates to managing and conserving bandwidth. This includes the reclamation of otherwise under-utilized or unused bandwidth such that the service and/or customer base can be expanded without significant modifications or build-outs of the underlying network infrastructure. For example, it is clearly desirable to expand the types and availability of “next-generation” network services, including high-definition (HD) broadcast, VOD, high-speed data, VoIP, Interactive TV, etc. over time, without the need for major capital expenditures or system modifications. Hence, network operators are increasingly focused on techniques for “squeezing” as much capacity out of their existing networks as possible.
The foregoing need for bandwidth optimization and reclamation is also applicable to so-called “switched” network architectures. These architectures generally distribute all of the available content provided by the network operator (e.g., MSO) to switches within the network; these switches are then used to selectively provide only those channels actually watched or requested by users to their hubs or nodes for delivery, thereby effectively deleting unwatched channels from the digital broadcast stream. A “deleted” channel is automatically switched back on when a subscriber subsequently selects it, with the switching and delivery transition being for all intents and purposes transparent to the subscriber. This approach has obvious benefits from the standpoint of bandwidth conservation.
One way that networks (including the aforementioned broadcast switched type) can attempt to optimize bandwidth usage is to determine a usage profile as a function of time (or other events). For example, by knowing that usage or particular assets (or the network as a whole) rises and falls at certain times of the day, the network operator can more efficiently allocate bandwidth and schedule activities (such as maintenance and testing). A higher level of granularity of this type of information is desirable; it would clearly be optimal to know what every subscriber in the network was planning on doing in terms of usage patterns. From this information, both individual and aggregated usage patterns could be determined, thereby allowing for maximal “shaping” of the network bandwidth allocation to the actual use patterns. However, this level of information has heretofore been substantially unattainable, due largely to the inability (i) for the consumer premises equipment (CPE) of the subscribers to effectively gather and send information back to the cognizant network operator/entity in a timely fashion, (ii) the network operator/entity to analyze the data to identify usage patterns and trends, and (iii) the network operator/entity to generate useful and timely corrections and insert them back into the operations profile of the network in order to take advantage of the identified patterns/trends in terms of bandwidth allocation.
Regarding Items (i) and (ii) above, a number of different approaches to subscriber/client device profiling and bandwidth optimization are evidenced in the prior art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,088,722 to Herz, et al. issued Jul. 11, 2000 entitled “System and method for scheduling broadcast of and access to video programs and other data using customer profiles” discloses a system and method for scheduling the receipt of desired movies and other forms of data from a network, which simultaneously distributes many sources of such data to many customers, as in a cable television system. Customer profiles are developed for the recipient describing how important certain characteristics of the broadcast video program, movie, or other data are to each customer. From these profiles, an “agreement matrix” is calculated by comparing the recipient's profiles to the actual profiles of the characteristics of the available video programs, movies, or other data. The agreement matrix thus characterizes the attractiveness of each video program, movie, or other data to each prospective customer. “Virtual” channels are generated from the agreement matrix to produce a series of video or data programming which will provide the greatest satisfaction to each customer. Feedback paths are also provided so that the customer's profiles and/or the profiles of the video programs or other data may be modified to reflect actual usage, and so that the data downloaded to the customer's set top terminal may be minimized. Kiosks are also disclosed which assist customers in the selection of videos, music, books, and the like in accordance with the customer's objective profiles. See also U.S. Pat. No. 5,758,257.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,446,261 to Rosser issued Sep. 3, 2002 entitled “Set top device for targeted electronic insertion of indicia into video” discloses a method of ostensibly anonymous targeted insertion of indicia into video broadcasts. Individual televisions or other video reception devices are associated with set-top boxes that monitor the usage and viewing habits of the television set or other video reception device. A viewer profile derived from data acquired from said monitoring is created wherein the viewer profile indicates certain characteristics about the viewer. This profile is transmitted to a centralized database, the centralized database being an intermediate link between the origin of the video broadcast and the end viewer. The purpose of the database is to link specific insertable indicia with matching specific viewer profiles. The insertable indicia are encoded directly into the broadcast video and re-broadcast to the end viewer where the set-top box decodes the broadcast video and performs insertion of the indicia. Thus, the system and method allow advertisers to target specific ads or indicia to specific viewing profiles.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,463,585 to Hendricks, et al. issued Oct. 8, 2002 entitled “Targeted advertisement using television delivery systems” discloses a multiple channel architecture designed to allow targeted advertising directed to television terminals connected to an operations center or a cable headend. Program channels carry television programs. During commercial breaks in the television programs, advertisements, which are also broadcast on the program channel, are displayed. However, additional feeder channels carry alternate advertising that may be better suited for certain viewing audiences. The operations center or the cable headend generate a group assignment plan that assigns the television terminals to groups, based on factors such as area of dominant influence and household income. A switching plan is then generated that instructs the television terminals to remain with the program channel or to switch to one of the alternate feeder channels during the program breaks. The television terminals record which channels were viewed during the program breaks, and report this information to the cable headends and the operations center. The reported information is used to generate billing for commercial advertisers, and to analyze viewer watching habits. The invention uses upstream data reception hardware, databases and processing hardware and software to accomplish these functions.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,687,735 to Logston, et al. issued Feb. 3, 2004 entitled “Method and apparatus for balancing distributed applications” discloses a method and apparatus for balancing distributed applications within a client/server network, such as a cable television network. In one aspect of the invention, a method of balancing the load of distributed application client portions (DACPs) across various server portions (DASPs) and server machines is disclosed. Statistics are maintained by one or more software processes with respect to the available resources of the servers and their loading; new process threads and/or distributed application server portions are allocated across the servers to maintain optimal system performance as client device loading increases or changes. In another aspect of the invention, an object-oriented distributed application software architecture employing both vertical and horizontal partitions and “mutable” (i.e., transportable) objects is disclosed. The mutable objects may reside on either the server or client portions of the distributed application while maintaining at least one network partition. A runtime environment adapted for the operation of the foregoing object-oriented distributed application, including an efficient message protocol useful for interprocess communication, is also disclosed. Methods for downloading the DACP from the servers, and scaling the DACP at download based on client device configuration, are further disclosed.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 20020032754 to Logston, et al. published Mar. 14, 2002 entitled “Method and apparatus for profiling in a distributed application environment” discloses a method and apparatus for deriving and characterizing the resource capabilities of client devices in a distributed application (DA) network environment. In a first aspect of the invention, a method and associated architecture for obtaining client device configuration and resource information are disclosed which incorporate a distributed profiling entity having a server portion and client portion, the client portion being used to facilitate query of the client device, and transfer of device resource and configuration information back to the server portion. This information is later used by the profiling entity to alter and update the distribution of entity components between the server and client device. The client device configuration may also be altered if required. In a second aspect of the invention, a method of scaling the aforementioned distributed profiling entity during both initial download and after initiation is disclosed.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 20020078444 to Krewin, et al. Jun. 20, 2002 entitled “System and method for the scaleable delivery of targeted commercials” discloses a system for the delivery of targeted advertising wherein a viewer profiling system distributes view profile data to control devices. Insertion orders are broadcast to the control devices or and the control devices store selected insertion orders based on the profile data. Broadcast commercials are displayed according to the acquisition field of the stored insertion orders.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 20020087976 to Kaplan, et al. published Jul. 4, 2002 entitled “System and method for distributing video with targeted advertising using switched communication networks” discloses a system and method for delivering broadcast-quality video with targeted advertising to viewers over the switched communication network. According to one embodiment, program streams with appropriately inserted splice points are transmitted from a network head end node to one or more egress nodes via a switched network. Because the switched network only carries program streams while advertising is inserted at the edges of the network, programs with demographically-targeted advertising can be delivered to many different subscribers without the need for using the bandwidth of the switched network to carry a unique program and advertising stream for each demographic group from the head end node.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 20020123928 to Eldering, et al. published Sep. 5, 2002 entitled “Targeting ads to subscribers based on privacy-protected subscriber profiles” discloses the monitoring subscriber viewing interactions, such as television viewing interactions, and generating viewing characteristics therefrom. At least one type of subscriber profile is generated from at least some subset of subscriber characteristics including viewing, purchasing, transactions, statistical, deterministic, and demographic. The subscriber characteristics may be generated, gathered from at least one source, or a combination thereof. Groups of subscribers are formed by correlating at least one type of subscriber profile. The subscriber groups may correlate to elements of a content delivery system (such as head-ends, nodes, branches, or set top boxes (STBs) within a cable TV system). Advertisement profiles are correlated to subscriber/subscriber group profiles, and targeted advertisements selected for the subscribers/subscriber groups based on the correlation. The targeted advertisements are inserted in place of default ads in program streams somewhere within the content delivery system (head-end, node, or STB), and presented to the subscriber/subscriber group via a television.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 20030126611 to Chernock, et al. published Jul. 3, 2003 entitled “Methods and apparatus for controlling interactive television information and commerce services” discloses an apparatus for an interactive television commerce environment, acting as a central point of control and information for enabling and facilitating information distribution and transactions in this environment. The apparatus is an element of an interactive television (ITV) commerce system, and enables the introduction of interactive commerce services in cable, satellite, and other broadcast networks. Other services provided include interfacing with off-line interactive advertisements, historical review and tracking services for users, and providing feedback and ITV ad modification capabilities to advertisers. The apparatus, residing at a local head end, can also add to or modify ads by inserting content of local relevance.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 20030142690 to Beser published Jul. 31, 2003 entitled “Use of group poll scheduling for broadband communication systems” discloses a group poll mechanism (GPM) that schedules upstream bandwidth for cable modems by pointing a request opportunity normally reserved for a single service flow to more than one service flow. Essentially, instead of using the seldom-used poll requests one per service flow, this same request opportunity is pointed to multiple service flows. In such kind of a scheme the GPM gives the same mini-slot to multiple service flows. The GPM implements the use of place-holder SIDs and mapping of information elements in MAP messages.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 20030221191 to Khusheim published Nov. 27, 2003 entitled “System and method for directed television and radio advertising” discloses a method and a device that selects a commercial message for presentation based on user profile criteria. A programming content signal is received at a customer premises equipment (CPE). A stored commercial message is selected for presentation during presentation of the programming content signal. The selected commercial message contains summary information related to an informational content of the selected commercial message, and is selected based on the summary information contained by the selected commercial message. Information relating to each commercial message presented and/or an interaction with a user can be recorded and sent to a central location.
One significant issue or disability with the foregoing methods relates to their lack of ability to gather subscriber activity (e.g., tuning and remote control unit) activity and aggregate this data into a historical database. Rather, such prior art approaches are “ethereal” from the standpoint that any data sent back to a supervisory entity (such as the head end) is typically not retained, but rather discarded after receipt. Reasons for this are manifold, including privacy concerns regarding the data and the subscriber from which it was obtained, data storage limitations, and simply the perceived lack of anything useful to do with the data.
Another significant issue with prior art approaches to bandwidth optimization in content-based networks (including the aforementioned broadcast switched architectures) relates to the requirement for manual intervention or input on the part of the network operator (e.g., MSO) in order to make best use of the available bandwidth. Specifically, many such systems require periodic operator adjustment and/or input, which may also include the requirement for periodic evaluation of the subscriber's viewing or tuning habits, and the generation of adjustments to be inserted into the system control functions based thereon. One disability with this approach is the need for constant (or near-constant) operator vigilance. Another disability is latency; the operator is basically always lagging the problem since changes in subscriber habits can occur rapidly, and the efficacy of any corrections made by the operator will in large part depend on the timeliness with which the operator performs his/her analysis and corrective action/adjustment. Greater operator vigilance is also required when the system is approaching the limits of its capacity, since excursions in demand or changes in viewer habits can easily cause an over-demand condition (potentially resulting in a loss of service to one or more subscribers for a period of time).
As previously discussed, another significant issue with the collection of data within a subscriber network is the need to maintain complete privacy and anonymity for individual subscribers from which the profiling information is obtained. Subscribers generally demand complete privacy regarding their viewing habits, type of content viewed, etc. Hence, any commercially practical system must maintain complete privacy. In other types of network paradigms (such as video-on-demand, or VOD), the subscriber's identity and tuner location is essential to instantiating and delivering the requested content, providing “trick mode” functions, billing the correct subscriber, etc. Furthermore, VOD is not a broadcast paradigm, and hence individual streams must be instantiated and generated for each subscriber, adding significant infrastructure and processing overhead.
Hence, based on the foregoing, there is a distinct need for improved apparatus and methods that permit the substantially automatic and timely (i) gathering of network usage and related data; (ii) storage and transmission of this data to a processing entity within the network, (iii) analysis of the data (including also historical or anecdotal data previously gathered); and (iv) anticipatory control and optimization of network operations based on the data analysis. Such improved apparatus and methods would ideally be adaptable to various network paradigms and architectures, and take advantage of and leverage the efficiencies provided by each different architecture (e.g., the broadcast switched architecture, including its capability for bandwidth conservation via cancellation of unused program streams). It would also ideally maintain complete user/subscriber anonymity regarding any collected profiling data. Mechanisms to effectively and adaptively implement different types of operational and/or business rules would also be provided.